How to draw burberry plaid

In this tutorial, you will learn how to draw a Burberry check pattern. The famous plaid will add to the style and class of your fashion designs and it looks great on coats, linings, bags, scarfs, and other accessories. Get inspired and enjoy creating fabulous fashion sketches!

Step 1: Fill in with base color

Start by drawing your fashion design and coloring it in a light beige color. The traditional Burberry check pattern is on a beige base, but if you feel like experimenting you can try different colors and see how this works for you.

Step 2: Add some shadows and highlights

Next, it’s time to give your design some dimension. You want to decide where the shadows go before introducing the plaid, which oftentimes can flatten the drawing. Draw the shadows using a darker shade at the places where the light doesn’t reach. The “How to draw skin shadows” tutorial will give you an idea where you should place the shadows.

Changing the color of the outline from black to brown will make your sketch look less harsh. Black outlines not only look unrealistic, but they also steal the attention from the more important content – our check plaid in this case.

Where there are folds make the lines curve a bit. Curve the lines to show the volume of the breasts and the hips too.

Step 3: Draw vertical red lines

Draw double vertical lines using a red color. Notice how big the distance between the double lines is. You want to make sure that you change the direction of the lines for each garment part (e.g. the sleeves, the collar). This will help for not losing the details of your design.

Step 4: Draw horizontal red lines

Draw horizontal double lines. The blank space between the vertical and the horizontal lines should be in the shape of a square. Notice that the horizontal lines are parallel to each other but they are not necessarily perfectly aligned to the hemline. They are gently curving around the body instead.

Step 5: Draw a vertical white stripe

Draw a semi-transparent stripe between the vertical lines. You can use color pencils (without pushing too much) or tempera paint with more water to get the effect. Make sure the stripes are the right size- not too wide, nor too narrow.

Step 6: Add horizontal white stripe

Continue with the horizontal stripes. For this type of plaid pattern, it is important to make darker the place where the horizontal and the vertical stipe overlap.

Step 7: Dark lines

Draw vertical dark lines over the white stripes. Pick a dark gray or dark brown color instead of black since you want to be able to go darker when they cross with the horizontal ones. Notice that the dark lines are equal in width and evenly distributed.

Step 8: Overlapping dark lines

The last step of drawing the Burberry check is drawing the dark horizontal lines. Make sure the spots where they are overlapping the vertical ones are darker.

Step 9: Repeat shadows again

At this point, it is very possible that some of the shadows you made in Step 2 are already lost. If necessary go over the shadows again to emphasize the volume.

The Burberry check pattern is a beautiful addition to your stylish designs. Change the colors and you will have a different type of plaid. Incorporate it in a smart and fun way in your fashion sketches and have fun!

It doesn’t look right! Common mistakes:

Mistake 1: The plaids are drawn with no movement at all. When drawing the check pattern try to follow the volume of the folds.

Mistake 2: The lines don’t follow the Centerline of the arm. Always think of the volume and curve the pattern accordingly.

I’m sure you’ve inspired a lot of teens (and adults and children) out there to start fashion designing. I’m so lucky to have found your site a few months ago (accurately probably 5)! Thank you SO MUCH!

Hello, Bella! Thank yo for the kind words. Of course you can send me your illustration to have a look – the email is info @ idrawfashion.com I will be making a review of the digital program I use very soon with some tips and tricks I use for my illustrations. So stay tuned :)

HI Teya! :D I love your site so much and it has helped me alot with fashion illustrations! Can you tell me your email because I finished my first digital illustration and I want some review on it also could you tell me what program you use for digital illustartions because I use sketchbook and maybe yours is better.